Things Change
by Atomic Lightbulb
Summary: Ryou muses about his sanity, his family, his tormentors and that voice that keeps interrupting all of it. One-shot.


_You have an astoundingly low level of self-preservation._

The voice said – no, Ryou corrected himself, he said. There was no voice. He must have said it. Him! Bakura Ryou. He was the only person in his mind.

The white haired boy heard a snort, but there was no one around him. The street was empty.

The emptiness reminded him of the days he used to hate loneliness. When he would blare the TV so loud that old Ms. Howe from downstairs would come up just to get him to turn it down. He would turn it down, only after he had cranked up his headphones to deafening volume. He needed noise. Anything to drown out the unbearable buzzing of silence. It was just him all alone. Father gone to Egypt. Mother and Amane gone forever.

But things change.

Ryou craved silence – craved the empty sensation that loneliness brought. Just for a moment to feel like it was just him, by himself.

He never felt that feeling anymore.

_What do you expect to accomplish from this meeting? If there is anything left of you._

The voice was taunting him. Ryou wouldn't have mind being an insane schizo if it meant that the voice in his head said nice things. Heck, Ryou would have settled for a voice that would it explain why it suddenly popped up instead of just "Read That" or "Talk to that boy".

Things like that always left Ryou with a bitter taste in his mouth.

And to think it had all started when his father had sent him a ring from Egypt – as a compensation gift for haven't seeing him in over a year.

Ryou had been fascinated by in. Just looking at it the boy had sense a pulse coming from the ring, like a beating heart. Like Magic. He had begun wearing under all his clothes, just to feel that pulse. The beatings, the rhythm, it made him feel alive.

It made him feel like he had a friend.

But things change.

The presence of the ring grew more and more domineering, forceful instead of the soft gentle pulsing of before. His memory became fuzzier and fuzzier and many times he said to himself he had taken that ring off –but it was still there. Then that voice came.

_Turn Around._

It said (almost on cue, Ryou thought with a bizarre smile) having lost its sarcastic tone. Now it was cold. Now it was commanding.

"No!" said Ryou to the street light above. He was insane right? Talking to street lights was no big deal.

_Now, yadonushi._

The voice was growling, and fear of it was more abundant then the fear of his destination.

After all, three high school bullies can't talk inside your head.

Ryou imagined the look on Ushio face if he had told him about the voice inside his head.

The teenage boy couldn't help but laugh. In fact, Ryou had laughed so much in one day for a long time. It all started when he had accepted Ushio and his gangs challenged to a fight. Ushio had been stunned. The voice had been stunned. Ryou himself had been stunned. A few months ago Ryou would have never accepted such a challenge. Instead, he would have simply kept his head down and gone to great lengths to avoid his tormentors.

But things change.

_This is your last warning._

Ryou stiffened at the power underlining that voice but turned the corner anyway.

Everything didn't make much sense after that.

He remembered meeting them – Ushio and the others – and he could see himself talking to them but it with that voice. (That voice that wasn't his voice but really was his voice.)

Then he felt that presence finally overwhelm him and –

The next thing he knew he was back at his apartment, completely unharmed.

No scratches.

No bruisies.

Nothing.

So why was there blood on him?

_If you ever do anything that stupid again – I'm letting you bear the scars._

Ryou nodded weakly.

He felt the presence retreat, back into the pulsing of the ring.

Ryou remembered a time when the thought of being completely alone terrified him, bullies where to be avoid at all cost, a voice in his head sounded like him, instead of sounding like a completely different person, and blood on his hands always belonged to him.

Ryou remembered a time when he was sane.

But, things change.

* * *

A/N Yeah. Ryou + Yami Bakura vs. Bullies has been overused to death, I know. But review anyway?


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